Editorial
Vesak: Turn the lights inward
View(s):Sri Lanka commemorates the birth, enlightenment and passing away of Lord Buddha with Vesak Poya falling next week. More money is now spent on heralding this thrice-blessed event than ever before.
The major cities are illuminated with pandals, lanterns and multi-coloured electric bulbs. In northern Jaffna, the Security Forces are putting up the tallest pandal ever seen in the peninsula. Everything is festive enough for an outward display to honour the vast majority’s greatest teacher, Gautama the Buddha. The country, with the longest continuous history of Buddhism of any Buddhist nation, is known as the Dhammadveepa — the island of the Dhamma.
Gautama Buddha had only one answer for his disciples who, entrenched as they were in a tradition of idol worship, wanted to venerate statues of him. If they wished to honour him, he had said, follow his teachings; nothing else. In these troubled times, with an upsurge in religious intolerance sullying this country’s name internationally, and raising serious concerns at home, are the two paths — that which he prescribed and that which we see happening — diverging rather than converging?
Are we seeing a growing trend towards a culture in which more value is placed upon inanimate objects and on symbols than on human life? Indeed, some would be more outraged by the cutting down of a Bo tree than they would be by the wanton murders and rising crimes that occur on a daily basis in their celebrated Dhammadveepa. It seems Metta (Loving Kindness), Karuna (Compassion), Muditha (Sympathetic Joy), Upekha (Equanimity) that the Buddha taught have flown through the window as crime soars with impunity.
The recent incident concerning a British tourist, a Buddhist herself, is a case in point. She was arrested, was forced to spend a night on the floor of a remand prison and deported from this country for having had a tattoo of the Buddha on her right arm. Not only were common sense and every rule in the book ignored, but her impassioned pleas for release on the grounds that she had meant no harm fell on deaf ears. The vague notion that it was somehow “against Buddhism” to sport a Buddha tattoo was considered more important than compassion for a fellow human being. Or is it the hype that has engulfed this country, that as custodians of the Noble Eightfold Path, the slightest aberration must be met with sledgehammer treatment?
Today, the Buddhists of Sri Lanka are also being called upon to defend themselves against allegations of extremism. Recently, several movements — many headed by Buddhist monks — have started campaigning to rid the country of perceived threats to Buddhism. Some of their grievances may have an element of legitimacy, but are they going about it the wrong way?
For instance, there is renewed concern about unethical conversions, predominantly by foreign-funded Evangelical churches. The traditional Church, too, is worried about these groups whom they claim are “stealing their flock”. The mushrooming of prayer centres around the country is another emotive issue that can be understood in the context of demographic, population and religious insecurities. Buildings that are leased for residential or business purposes suddenly transform into “churches” or “mosques” without the requisite approvals. When this happens in crowded areas without consultation with residents, tensions arise.
There is also a creeping tide of fundamentalism among some groups, especially in the East. More and more people are returning from West Asia with religious practices unfamiliar to local communities. There are disputes between the traditionalists and these new reformers (who ironically go as fundamentalists). There is competition for funding from countries exporting their schools of religious thought, channelled directly into villages via various NGOs set up by local MPs and Ministers. The monies are used to build and support religious schools and to open new places of worship, among other things.
“Buddhist fundamentalism”, as it is called in some quarters, is however distinguishable in Sri Lanka by the veneer of hostility and aggression with which it has cloaked itself. But Buddhist fundamentalism must be in the Dhamma — where it all began. Not in aggressive action. There is a need to step back from the ongoing rampaging over the rights of others. Unlike in England, where the sovereign is the head of the church, or any theological State, Sri Lanka remains a secular State — with the religion of three-fourths of the people given “foremost place” — not the only place.
The voice of sanity is being lost in the unpleasant barrage of insults and threats the chief protagonists of some of these groups rain upon the heads of members of other religions, and sometimes their own. Repeatedly using vituperative language against those of other religions is un-Buddhist. And to do so while cameras are rolling provides ammunition to those elements who wish to pour scorn on a religion that has touched the hearts and minds of millions for centuries, especially in Asia and is now studied nowhere more avidly than in the West.
For the first time, a separate police unit has been set up under the auspices of the Ministry of Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs to handle complaints related to religion. It has come to this. The men in the unit, who are neither trained nor informed, have no clue how to set about it.
The country is in the grip of a narcotics-smuggling nexus and a State initiative to legalise gaming is already underway. Former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, speaking before the United Nations General Assembly in 1999 pointed out that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is rooted in the values and teachings of the major religions of the world, and not least in Buddhism. This Declaration is now considered the benchmark for nations in regard to the human rights of their citizens.
The late Minister Kadirgamar urged the UN General Assembly, and successfully so, to declare Vesak as a day to be observed by the world body. As the world does so, we might, as the Buddha said “turn the searchlight inward”.